Monday, June 30, 2014

The Tuhoe deal courts disagreement

Video of the Upokorehe demonstration at Maraetotara, Ohope from April this year. They won their court case, but that won't stop the legislation rolling over the top of neighbouring Iwi interests and over the top of internal Tuhoe Hapu interests if the government and Tamati Kruger have their way.

The Bill is bad because Tuhoe interests clash with other Iwi who have not settled with the NZ government - the sort of first-in-first-served scenario which suits the interests of the Crown and brings conflicts with their whanaunga in other Hapu. It is also bad - as all these settlements are - because the settlement is fundamentally unfair: being a diktat of the colonial regime to ensure its continuation and not an avenue for self-determination. Tuhoe is unique because the Bill also represents another possibility dismissed. The terms are only a fraction, a shadow, of what their 1896 legislation guaranteed - full local autonomy and the Crown restricted to limited public works purchases of land within the Urewera.

The Tuhoe settlement entity has already built its headquarters at Taneatua, and one does wonder if this has been paid for by a NZ government inducement (or bribe) to ensure they go along with the legislated agreement set up with Kruger et al. By handing out a small bit of lolly the government hopes it can buy the outcome. Contrary to the official lines that everything is fine, there

is disease within Tuhoe from what I understand - and there is certainly disquiet amongst the neighbours if you hear the remarks at the end of the video from Big Jim!